New Books, etc.
March 2006
NONFICTION
African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame - Bailey, Anne C.
Historian Bailey focuses on the slave trade from the African perspective. As there are few written African records, in contrast to those found in Europe and the Americas, on this topic, she centers her study on the oral tradition, what she refers to as "African human libraries." She primarily focuses on a region in Ghana around one particular oral remembrance told from various perspectives. At the center of this story was an instance when the dominant clan, who had participated in the slave trade by capturing people from the interior for sale, had some of their own members tricked onto a slave ship never to return. One version records the chief as a victim; others record him as a collaborator. In both versions, this story reflected a turning point in this society, where all become vulnerable to the slave trade. Bailey explores the silence surrounding the slave trade and practices including domestic slavery, a legacy that continues today even where these slaves have been married into their masters' families. A fascinating perspective on slavery from the African continent. - Booklist
Contents: Introduction: from the Middle Passage to middle quarters, Jamaica: the transformation of a personal journey -- The incident at Atorkor: a break with the past -- African agency in the Atlantic slave trade -- African resistance: the slave who whipped her mistress and gained her freedom and other oral and written tales -- European and American agency in the Atlantic slave trade -- The social and political impact of the Atlantic slave trade on the old Slave Coast -- Subversion of the sacred: the effects of the Atlantic slave trade on Slave Coast -- Reparations as rememory and redress.
Electric Dreams: One Unlikely Team of Kids and the Race to Build the Car of the Future - Kettlewell, Caroline
In 1995 the Virginia Power company hosted a competition for high schools in the mid-Atlantic region to convert conventional automobiles into electric vehicles (EVs). As it happened, out of habitual disregard for impoverished Northampton County in North Carolina, the company nearly forgot to invite the eventual winners. Aided by a handful of phenomenal teachers, some uncommonly bright and determined students and a pervading regional interest in automobiles fueled by NASCAR, the county was able to outperform schools of far greater pedigree and budget. Of course, the widespread, reflexive negative expectations provided no small motivation to the kids of Northampton County. They mastered problems involving electrical wiring, battery longevity, welding and aerodynamics in converting a 1985 Ford Escort to the aptly named—in more ways than one—"Shocker." The word "inspirational" is applied to too many books, but it comfortably fits this one, with its genuinely likable cast of unlikely achievers. This is essential reading for any serious environmentalist, as it makes the case that EVs might play. Even more, it contains profound lessons that everyone involved in the educational system would do well to heed. - Publisher's Weekly
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everthing - Levitt, Steven D.
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. - Amazon.com
Contents:
Introduction : The Hidden Side of Everything -- What Do
Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? -- How is the Ku Klux Klan
Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents? -- Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their
Moms? -- Where Have All the Criminals Gone? -- What Makes a Perfect Parent?
-- Perfect Parenting, Part II; or: Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell
As Sweet?
Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory - Blight, David W.
Booklist starred review: In an effort to provide a more accurate account of what was, by necessity, a clandestine operation, the National Underground Railroad Center in Cincinnati offers a collection of essays, photographs, and illustrations from scholars to document the enterprise in as much detail as possible. Writing with respect for the history and with caution about the mythology, contributors detail the contributions of famous abolitionists, including Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass, and those who are less well known. Scholars examine the origin of the term Underground Railroad, the double meaning of spirituals and other signals used in the secret society, and the operations of at least 150 antislavery societies existing in Ohio (the locus of the movement) at the peak of abolitionist activism. Scholars also examine the passion and courage of abolitionists, and the dilemma of the lasting appeal of the Underground Railroad as an archetypal image of a freedom-seeking, freedom-supporting nation, and, at the same time, the shame of slavery that necessitated such heroic efforts. - Booklist
Contents: Before cotton: African and African American slavery in mainland North America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries / Ira Berlin -- Simple truths: antebellum slavery in black and white / Deborah Gray White -- From moral suasion to political confrontation: American abolitionists and the problem of resistance, 1831-1861 / James Brewer Stewart -- Above ground on the underground railroad: places of flight and refuge / John Michael Vlach -- Southern passage: the forgotten route to freedom in Florida / Jane Landers -- "Freemen to the rescue!": resistance to the fugitive slave law of 1850 / R. J. M. Blackett -- Kidnapping and resistance: antislavery direct action in the 1850s / Lois E. Horton -- Crusade for freedom: William Still and the real Underground Railroad / James Oliver Horton -- "Slavery is war": Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad / Catherine Clinton -- Flight and fight: the wartime destruction of slavery, 1861-1865 / Bruce Levine -- Why the Underground Railroad, and why now? A long view / David W. Blight -- Telling it like it was at Rokeby: the evolution of an Underground Railroad historic site in Vermont / Jane Williamson -- Reading freedom's memory book: recovering the story of the Underground Railroad in New York State / Milton C. Sernett -- Places and communities of the Underground Railroad: the National Park Service network to freedom / Diane Miller -- Sacred drama: "Exodus" and the Underground Railroad in African American life / Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II - Delattre, Lucas
This is the first full-scale biography of Kolbe, one of the major Allied agents in Nazi Germany. A junior official at Hitler's Foreign Ministry, he had access to thousands of messages conveying valuable information about German weapons, tactics, plans and morale. As a diplomatic courier to the German embassy in Switzerland, he was able to travel freely, and regularly deliver his material to Allen Dulles, head of the OSS office in Switzerland. Dulles had to fight the opposition of the British to American espionage efforts and the skepticism of his own superiors, but eventually saw to it that Kolbe's material was put to use. Delattre paints a vivid portrait of Kolbe, a romantic and a stubborn fitness buff, who seems to have become an agent simply because he was a decent man confronting indecency. A longtime German correspondent for Le Monde, Delattre has supplemented his firsthand experience with extensive research and is terrific on conditions in Germany during the war. Kolbe survived the war but did not prosper in the peace, when he was regarded as a traitor in Germany. - Publisher's Weekly
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl - Egan, Timothy
Publisher's Weekly starred review: Egan tells an extraordinary tale in this visceral account of how America's great, grassy plains turned to dust, and how the ferocious plains winds stirred up an endless series of "black blizzards" that were like a biblical plague: "Dust clouds boiled up, ten thousand feet or more in the sky, and rolled like moving mountains" in what became known as the Dust Bowl. But the plague was man-made, as Egan shows: the plains weren't suited to farming, and plowing up the grass to plant wheat, along with a confluence of economic disaster—the Depression—and natural disaster—eight years of drought—resulted in an ecological and human catastrophe that Egan details with stunning specificity. He grounds his tale in portraits of the people who settled the plains: hardy Americans and immigrants desperate for a piece of land to call their own and lured by the lies of promoters who said the ground was arable. Egan's interviews with survivors produce tales of courage and suffering: Hazel Lucas, for instance, dared to give birth in the midst of the blight only to see her baby die of "dust pneumonia" when her lungs clogged with the airborne dirt. With characters who seem to have sprung from a novel by Sinclair Lewis or Steinbeck, and Egan's powerful writing, this account will long remain in readers' minds. - Publisher's Weekly
Contents: Introduction: Live Through This -- I. PROMISE: The Great Plowup, 1901–1930 -- The Wanderer -- No Man's Land -- Creating Dalhart -- High Plains Deutsch -- Last of the Great Plowup -- II BETRAYAL, 1931–1933 -- First Wave -- A Darkening 103 -- In a Dry Land -- New Leader, New Deal -- Big Blows -- III BLOWUP, 1934–1939 -- Triage -- The Long Darkness -- The Struggle for Air -- Showdown in Dalhart -- Duster's Eve -- Black Sunday -- A Call to Arms -- Goings -- Witnesses -- The Saddest Land -- Verdict -- Cornhusker II -- The Last Men -- Cornhusker III -- Rain -- Epilogue -- Notes and Sources -- Acknowledgments -- Index.
Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad - De Ramus, Betty
"He carried his wife to freedom on his scarred and beaten back - that's really all you need to know about John Little." But journalist DeRamus reveals more about Little and a dozen or so others in this uplifting and sometimes heartbreaking look at love during the U.S.'s slavery years. Employing newspaper articles, unpublished memoirs and reminiscences, oral histories, slave narratives, census data and other sources, not to mention a dramatic, novelistic narrative voice, DeRamus profiles couples - slave and free, black and white - who risked everything to be together. Slaves Ellen and William Craft escaped to the North by posing as a master (Ellen, with her "creamy color," played a white man) and his man (William was "the slave who cut up her meat and warmed her flannels"). James Smith was an escaped slave who spent 17 years traveling from Virginia to Canada in search of his beloved wife, and Lucy Millard was a white preacher's daughter who fell in love with Isaac Berry, a slave. "[N]ot all of these true tales end in triumph," DeRamus warns, but they are all riveting - if sometimes told in overdone prose. DeRamus and her subjects do the valuable service of reminding readers what it means to be courageous enough to love "in sickness and in health, [and] in war and peace as well." - Publisher's Weekly
Contents: Book I, The Rebels. Love in a time of hate -- A love worth waiting for -- The special delivery package -- The man who couldn't grow a beard -- Even a blind horse knows the way -- The slave who knew his name -- Footprints in the snow -- Chased by wolves -- The woman on John Little's back -- Angeline's blues -- Book II, Crossing the color line. Suspicious lynchings -- Passing white -- Passing for black -- Mixed marriages in deadly times: a chronology -- Hound dogs hate red pepper -- The schoolteacher had to duck dead cats -- Book III, Free at last. Guns and pickles.
Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn from It - Borofsky, Robert
Yanomami raises questions central to the field of anthropology-questions concerning the practice of fieldwork, the production of knowledge, and anthropology's intellectual and ethical vision of itself. Using the Yanomami controversy-one of anthropology's most famous and explosive imbroglios-as its starting point, this book draws readers into not only reflecting on but refashioning the very heart and soul of the discipline. It is both the most up-to-date and thorough public discussion of the Yanomami controversy available and an innovative and searching assessment of the current state of anthropology. The Yanomami controversy came to public attention through the publication of Patrick Tierney's best-selling book, Darkness in El Dorado, in which he accuses James Neel, a prominent geneticist who belonged to the National Academy of Sciences, as well as Napoleon Chagnon, whose introductory text on the Yanomami is perhaps the best-selling anthropological monograph of all time, of serious human rights violations. This book identifies the ethical dilemmas of the controversy and raises deeper, structural questions about the discipline. A portion of the book is devoted to a unique roundtable in which important scholars on different sides of the issues debate back and forth with each other. This format draws readers into deciding, for themselves, where they stand on the controversy's-and many of anthropology's-central concerns.
Contents: PART I: The controversy and the broader issues at stake -- Chagnon and Tierney in their own words -- How the controversy has played out within American anthropology -- Broader issues at stake in the controversy -- Keeping Yanomami perspectives in mind -- You decide -- A platform for change -- Photographic interlude -- PART II: Round one -- Round two -- Round three -- Three assessments -- Appendix: Summary of the roundtable participants' positions.
Body Mind Mastery: Creating Success in Sport and Life - Millman, Dan
Physically demanding sports such as tennis and basketball have a lot in common with skills such as playing the piano. In addition to physical training, mastering these activities requires developing mental and emotional talents as well. Drawing on his own experiences, Dan Millman, in this revised and updated edition of The Inner Athlete , offers a regimen to integrate physical training with psychological growth. He examines the motivations for athletic excellence and offers a transformative guide to success that is as applicable in everyday life as it is in sports. - from the publisher
Contents: Natural laws -- The power of awareness -- Preparation -- Mental talent -- Emotional talent -- Physical talent -- Tools for training -- Competition and cooperation -- The evolution of athletics.
Almanacs of American Life: Colonial America to 1763
Presents a mine of information for both researchers and general readers. Its articles are divided into subject areas (e.g. Native American life, the economy, diet and health, and prominent and representative Americans) and are accompanied by 430 detailed tables presenting data such as: reported weather conditions in New England, 1607-1699; chronology of the colonial Indian conflicts, 1622-1763; earliest population estimates of Indian Nations in Eastern US; number and value of livestock owned by Connecticut farmers age 40-60, 1670-1769; percentage of colonial households owning plows, 1636-1769; workday schedule of Francis Pepper, a hired farm laborer in Springfield, Mass., about 1665; and iron forges and furnaces operating in Massachusetts, 1758. A sampler of historical documents concludes the work. - Book News
Almanacs of American Life: Revolutionary America, 1763-1800
Virtually every aspect of American life during the period 1763 to 1800 is examined and analyzed in eighteen chapters on topics ranging from climate to crime and violence. The 425 tables and statistical charts are drawn from a variety of government documents, censuses, and secondary literature, and sources are always noted. The tables and charts are complemented by short analytical essays, 79 black-and-white illustrations, and 15 maps, some of which are reproductions of colonial city plans for places like Charleston and Boston. There is a short bibliographic essay, a detailed table of contents, and an index. The economy, in chapter 4, is treated at greater length than any other topic, with 230 charts and statistical tables that discuss such industries as cotton, naval stores, and the fur trade. Among the more fascinating chapters are those focusing on population and diet and health. We learn, for example, that one in eight children born during this period died within a year, and one in five died before maturity. On the other hand, males who reached 21 lived to 61 years of age on average. The average family had seven children. The average height of soldiers in the Continental Army was five feet eight inches; while European soldiers averaged five feet seven. Americans living during this period ate four times as many turnips as potatoes. - Booklist
Almanacs of American Life: Victorian America, 1876-1913
Investigates America during a period of immense innovation and profound change. Illustrating numerous aspects of American life, both public and private, the book is a kind of mosaic, from which we discover what Americans ate, what they wore, what they did for entertainment, what songs they sang, what games they played, what books they read, who they voted for, what they worried about, how much they earned and how they spent it, what they grew, manufactured and produced, how they did or did not provide social services, how they celebrated themselves in three World's Fairs, and much, much more. Readers will find in these pages many perspectives on the culture, the arts, the economy, the politics and the conditions of ordinary life in the United States during the period between the Civil War and World War I. They will find evidence of diversity, growth and prosperity, as well as of bigotry, economic blight and miserable existences wasted in ill-compensated toil. They will find the mansions of Newport and the slums of the Lower East Side, the open door to immigrants and the confinement of the Indians of the western frontier, the capital accumulation of the robber barons and the struggles of workers - including child labor - for dignity and decent wages. They will find the overwhelming development of technology - for example, the invention and spread of the light bulb, the telephone, the automobile, the airplane and the movies - as it fueled the country's growth and changed America forever. In short, Victorian America, 1876 to 1913 reflects all the variety and contradiction of American life in this extraordinary historical era. Carefully chosen and representative information, in a concise, easy-to-use mix of documents, text, tables and illustrations, allows the reader to sample the texture and flavor of Victorian America. - from the publisher
Almanacs of American Life: Modern America, 1914-1945
Uses an almanac format to document the daily lives of Americans. Begins in the Progressive Era, continues through WWI, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the New Deal, and concludes with WWII. Using statistics, tables, and text, and archival illustrations such as photographs, advertisements, cartoons, and maps, it examines the lives of average people, e.g., how many had telephones, what their favorite radio shows were, how much alcohol they consumed, and how many had indoor plumbing. Period documents show the wide range of conflicts and issues that defined the era. - Book News
Almanacs of American Life: Cold War America, 1946-1990
Through statistical tables, maps, charts, excerpts from period documents, lists, b&w photos and illustrations, and detailed overviews, this work examines aspects of American culture during the 45 years after WWII, a period of drastic political, social, technological, and military change. There is information on diverse topics such as population and immigration, education, and weather, along with essays on special topics including the Civil Rights movement, capital punishment, and the development of the Internet. - Book News
MEDIA
Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State - DVD, 2 disc set
A BBC production, "the result of three years of research, drawing on the close involvement of world experts, recently discovered documents and nearly 100 interviews with camp survivors and perpetrators, many of whom are speaking on the record for the first time. Their stories are brought to life through the innovative use of archive footage, dramatic recreations of key... moments, and their... testimony"--Container label. Approx. 300 min. DVD extras: Extra features: interview with Laurence Rees; a series of six follow-up discussions hosted by award-winning journalist Linda Ellerbee
Inherit the Wind - DVD
A small Tennessee town gained national attention in 1925 when a biology schoolteacher was arrested for violating state law and teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in the classroom. 1960 film version starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly and directed by Stanley Kramer. 2 hours, 8 minutes. DVD extras: Includes English, French and Spanish language tracks, with optional English captions, and optional French and Spanish subtitles.
Sir Isaac Newton: The Gravity of Genius - VHS
Episode of the television program Biography in 1995. By the age of 23, he had laid the foundations for calculus, the laws of gravity, motion and inertia, and begun experiments on light. His major work, The Principia, has become to science what the Mona Lisa is to art. Isaac Newton has been called the Father of Modern Science. His incredible body of work represents arguably the greatest contribution to science ever made by an individual. But despite living at the vibrant center of an inspired social scene, his personal life was marked by loneliness . Sir Isaac Newton examines the many discoveries and private fears of this remarkable man. Leading scientists trace the extent and impact of his discoveries, and reveal the self doubt that led him to hold back on publishing many of his findings. It was only after his Principia was recognized as one of the great works in science that he released a number of his earlier findings. BIOGRAPHY; explores the life of the man once called The last great magician, the last great mind which looked out on the visible world with the same eyes as those who began our intellectual inheritance. - from the producer
The Century of Warfare: Time-Life video series ( 12 videos)
Battle Fleets and U-Boats: Naval Warfare 1914-1918
Traces the history and development of super battleships and the emergence of submarine warfare during the First World War. At the start of World War 1, the battleship ruled the waves, and the British Grand Fleet and German High Seas Fleet prepared for a mighty confrontation in the North Sea which could decide the course of the war. Battlefleets and U-Boats shows how the mighty battlefleets clashed inconclusively and how naval warfare was revolutionized by the success of new weapons such as the submarine. As the First World War began, the battleship ruled the waves, and the British Grand Fleet and German High Seas Fleet prepared for a mighty confrontation in the North Sea which could decide the course of the war. But when this came it was inconclusive, and soon the supremacy of the battleship itself was to be threatened.
This programme shows how the mighty battlefleets clashed and how naval warfare was revolutionised by the success of new weapons such as the submarine.
• The Dreadnought Revolution
• Battlefleets clash at Jutland
• Scourge of the U-Boat aces
• Q-Ships and Convoys
Blood and Mud: Trench Warfare in the West 1914-1918
After smashing through Belgium and fighting their way toward Paris in the fall of 1914, the Central Powers' race to the sea bogged down amid determined Allied Resistance at Ypres and the river Marne. As both armies dug into heavily defended trenches, advances on the western front would come to be measured in yards instead of miles, while casualties would be measured in numbers almost beyond comprehension. Stunning archival footage from the front lines plunge you into the heat of campaigns that changed the concept of war itself. Here, the opposing forces' face-to-face stalemate turned initial defensive lines into long-term, fortified battle trenches that stretched from Switzerland to the North Sea.... You'll witness a world in shock as the tools of modern warfare are unleashed for the first time; from heavy artillery, tanks and machine guns to hand grenades, massive land mines and the initial, horrifying use of poison gas. ... As infantry on both sides repeatedly mounted their heroic but doomed charges into no man's land, you'll see as never before how these grueling years of "Blood and Mud" turned the savage specter of the trenches into one of the most indelible images in the history of war. The long shadow of the struggle on the Western Front was to haunt succeeding generations. The horrors of the trench warfare and the slaughter of millions in futile attacks against barbed wire and machine-guns, came as a four-year nightmare to men who had marched cheerfully to war in 1914 confident that it would all be over by Christmas.
The programme tells the story of bloody campaigns in northern France, the nature of trench warfare, and the weapons with which the stalemate was finally broken.
• The Massacre of the Innocents
• Stalemate at Verdun
• Carnage on the Somme
• The Development of the Tank
Aces High: Air Warfare 1914-1918
Narrates the first use of balloons, aircraft equiped with cameras, and aeroplanes equiped with weaponry in the first World War, showing how air power "grew from humble origins to become one of the mightiest wartime technologies ever created." When Europe went to war in 1914 the heavier-than-air flying machine had been invented for a little more than a decade. Within four years agile fighters were dogfighting for supremacy over the frontlines, ground attack aircraft were supporting every offensive and long range bombers were attacking enemy cities. Aces High looks at the aircraft which brought about this revolution, the men who flew them and the tactics used. This programme looks at the types of aircraft which brought about this revolution, the men who flew them, and the tactics they used.
• Zeppelins over London
• Von Richthofen and his Flying Circus
• Long-Range Bombers
• The Development of the Aircraft Carrier
Air War, 1939-1945
Video tells the story of air power in WWII. Includes air battles over Europe, Asia and the pacific, air support at Normandy, and delivering the atomic bomb over Japan. Aerial warfare came of age in the Second World War with ever-more sophisticated single-engine fighters grappling to achieve supremacy over each battlefield; close-support aircraft proving a crucial element in every attack; and strategic bombers devastating an enemy's cities and terrorising its civilians. This episode charts the desperate race between the warring nations to develop ever faster and more deadly aircraft and the story behind the scientists who built them and the heroes who flew them.
• The Blitzkrieg Campaigns
• The Bouncing Bomb
• Operation Pointblank
• The Grand Slam
• The Atomic Bomb
• The London Blitz
The War at Sea, 1939-1945
With the launching of Bismarck and Tirpitz, the battleship still seemed to dominate the oceans of the world. But within months its supremacy was being challenged in the North Atlantic by the U-Boat and in the Mediterranean by aircraft. As the naval war climaxed in the Pacific, the US Navy shattered the Japanese fleet in a series of massive carrier battles and strangled her trade with an unrelenting submarine campaign.
This programme describes the strategy employed by the opposing Navies as they wrestled for dominance over the seas, and how the aircraft carrier and submarine took over from the battleship as the principal Naval weapon.
• The Sinking of the Bismarck
• The Battle of the Philippine Sea
• The U-Boat Wolf Packs
• Amphibious Landings
Blitzkrieg! 1939-1945
Using archival film footage, the effects of the German's new form warfare, Blitzkrieg, is detailed. Includes the invasion of Poland the fall of Paris. The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 finally dashed all hope that the conflict of 1914-18 had been the war to end all wars. Britain and France swiftly honored their pledge to Poland and declared war on Germany, but then seemed as indecisive about how to defeat Hitler militarily as they had been to control him politically.
This program shows how the German Panzers and Stukas unleashed a new form of warfare which proved devastating, swiftly overrunning Norway, Denmark, France, and the Low Countries.
• Cavalry versus Tanks
• The Maginot Line
• The Luftwaffe Triumphant
• Panzers drive to the Channel
Japanese Blitzkrieg: Pacific Theater 1939-1942
Using archival film footage and first hand accounts, Japan's early successes in the Pacific theatre are detailed. Includes battles at Pearl Harbor, Wake, Malaya, Midway and Guadalcanal. At 7:50 in the morning of Sunday, 7 December 1941, a wave of 214 aircraft appeared over the island of Hawaii. They were Japanese, and within two hours the heart had been torn out of the American Pacific Fleet. For the next six months Japanese forces were to rampage across the Far East and Pacific destroying the great colonial Empires of Britain, France, and the Netherlands which had dominated the area for centuries.
This programme looks at the extraordinary speed with which the Japanese were able to humble the Western powers and the equally extraordinary swiftness with which the United States was able to recover and begin to fight back.
• A Day of Infamy at Pearl Harbor
• The Fall of Singapore
• Clash of the Carrier Fleets
• Showdown at Midway
• The Marines on Guadalcanal
Jungle and Ocean: The Pacific Theatre, 1943-1945
Using archival film footage and first hand accounts, the Allies fight against the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre are detailed. Includes battles at Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. On 6 August 1945 an American B-29 called Enola Gay took off, its target the city of Hiroshima. Once above the city, a single atomic bomb nicknamed ‘Little Boy' was dropped. The result was total destruction. Nagasaki soon suffered the same fate and within days Emperor Hirohito insisted that Japan must surrender. It was the climax to an unrelenting campaign in which Allied forces had driven back the Japanese from the islands of the Pacific and the jungles of Malaya and Burma in the face of suicidal resistance.
This programme centres on the harrowing and bloody campaigns that led to final victory in the Second World War.
• The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot
• Japanese Suicide Missions
• The Battle for Iwo Jima
• The Allied Campaigns in Burma
• The Manhattan Project
Normandy to the Rhine: The Western Front 1944-1945
Chronicled by actual film footage, program provides a view into the Allies invasion of Europe, from the attack at Normandy to the liberation of Paris. Even as Britain stood alone against Hitler in the summer of 1940, Winston Churchill knew that only by re-entering Continental Europe could the Axis powers ultimately be defeated. Once America had entered the war, the Allies could start to prepare for Operation Overlord, one of the most complex and risky military operations ever undertaken.
This programme shows how D-Day was planned and executed and how the Allied forces were able to drive German forces back to their last major defence - the River Rhine.
• Fortress Europe
• D-Day
• Breakout from Normandy
• Paratroops at Arnhem
• The Battle of the Bulge
The Iron Curtain - Cold War 1946 - 1989
Discusses the development of hostilities and nuclear brinksmanship between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. following the end of the Second World War. Despite the enormous devastation and tragic loss of life during the Second World War, in the aftermath Europe still found itself divided into two armed camps. The wartime Allies soon fell out and worsening relations between East and West cast long shadows. In the wake of Russia's lowering of ‘The Iron Curtain' came the Cold War and an unprecedented arms race.
This programme charts the almost suicidal growth of strategic forces and nuclear arsenals in both the East and West, and the challenges these ‘deterrents' were to pose to the leaders of the world's superpowers.
• Judgement at Nuremberg
• The Berlin Airlift
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• The Berlin Wall
• Star Wars
Vietnam, 1955-1989
Beginning with the decimation of French forces at Dien Bien Phu, the struggle by Ho Chi Minh to unite a divided Vietnam and his eventual success with the departure of American forces is recounted. Indo-China has witnessed conflict from the end of World War II until the present day. It was dominated by North Vietnam's twenty year struggle to impose its will on the non-communist South.
This episode charts the American involvement in the Vietnam War, one that eventually ended in disillusionment and disaster, as well as Vietnam's subsequent overthrow of Pol Pot's brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
• The Tonkin Incident
• US Bombing of North Vietnam
• The Tet Offensive
• Massacre at My Lai
• The Killing Fields
Gulf War and the Future
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait resulted in a military response by the United Nations and the most thoroughly documented war in history. Footage includes front-line combat, news coverage, and nose-cone mounted cameras. Within just a month of the ending of the Cold War the new world order faced a dramatic challenge when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded a southern neighbour, oil-rich Kuwait. Five months later he faced a massive hi-tech assault by coalition forces in Saudi Arabia.
This programme covers the Gulf War and its aftermath and the Balkans. It examines the threats, some new and others old, which make the world an uncertain place as it enters a new millennium.
• Tomahawks over Baghdad
• Carnage on the Basra Road
• The Soviet Monolith Breaks Up
• Bloodshed in The Balkans
• Stealth Weaponry.
The Babe - VHS
Profane and earthy, Babe Ruth had a simplicity and warmth of spirit that were electrifying. But his greatness resides on the baseball diamond, where he set a roster of records capped by his 60-home run season. Here's his story, from his youth in Baltimore and his early career as a Red Sox pitcher to his years of glory in Yankee pinstripes, and beyond. - from the producer
Moses and the Ten Commandments
An Arts & Entertainment Biography program. He was a complex man and a reluctant prophet. But when called upon to save his people, he overcame his doubts and fears and defeated the most powerful empire on earth. Born of Hebrew slaves and raised in the Pharaoh's courts, Moses performed some of the Old Testament's greatest miracles. Yet the man who delivered his people from centuries of bondage and received the Ten Commandments from God was often beset by self-doubt. How did Moses manage to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness of Sinai? This extraordinary program tells the story of the Exodus in all its majesty, using abundant location footage, rare paintings and artifacts, and interviews with biblical experts. - from the producer
Joseph Stalin: Red Terror - VHS
An Arts & Entertainment Biography program. He held absolute power over the Soviet Union for 29 years. His legacy arguably surpasses even Hitler's he sent over 20 million of his own countrymen to their deaths! Josef Stalin is one of the greatest tyrants of all time. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the extent of his atrocities have been revealed to a stunned world, and he has taken his place alongside Hitler as one of the most reviled leaders of the century. This comprehensive portrait revisits the life of "Uncle Joe" through astonishing Soviet archival film and an astonishing collection of interviews. Biographers Robert Conquest and Edvard Radzinsky explore his disastrous reforms, including the collectivization of agriculture and his massive purges. Former interpreter Valentin Berezhkov offers a first-person view of the dictator, while purge victim Dr. Janusz Bardach talks about his time in the Gulags. And in a rare interview Mikail Gorbachev explores the rise, rule and legacy of the most infamous of all his predecessors. BIOGRAPHY. proudly presents a definitive history of one of the most important, compelling and hated men in history. - from the producer
Frank Herbert's Dune - VHS
Originally aired on the Sci Fi Channel in 2000. Four-hour adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel. In the far future, the remote desert world of Dune becomes the epicenter of a spectacular struggle that will spark a revolution, fulfill an ancient prophecy and forever change the galactic balance of power. - from the producer
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Restless Spirit - VHS
Episode of the television program Biography in 1994. One of this century's most respected and admired figures, she was a humanitarian who transformed the place of women in society, and in the White House. Eleanor Roosevelt created the tradition of the activist First Lady. A pioneer among Presidents' wives, she formed a staff, held press conferences, and defined an agenda beyond that of homemaker. She fought for Civil Rights, for women and the oppressed. Yet this towering public figure was also an orphan whose family was destroyed by alcoholism, the unhappy wife of a philandering husband, and a passionate friend. Experts and scholars finally succeed in connecting her public and private lives in this unique and intimate portrait. Revisit the complete, inspiring life story of Eleanor Roosevelt, champion of freedom and human dignity. - from the producer
Colin Powell: A Soldier's Campaign - VHS
Episode of the television program Biography in 1995. A revealing profile telling the story of Colin Powell, examining his promising future, and also including interviews of his family and friends, and rare archival footage from his distinguished career. - from the producer
FICTION
Snobs - Fellowes, Julian
Wodehouse gets a modern twist in this brilliantly acerbic tale of snobbery and marital tomfoolery in 1990s London. Our nameless protagonist, a jovial, perceptive sort of 30-something fellow hanging affably about the fringes of society, introduces his middle-class but sleek and beautiful friend Edith Lavery to the earnest but dull Lord Charles Broughton. Much to the dismay of "civilized" society, Charles falls in love and proposes to the social-climbing but largely indifferent Edith. Even after she is married, Edith is snubbed and humiliated at every turn (in the slyest, politest possible way, of course), until she moves out in a huff with her married lover, Simon Russell, an actor/ego-on-legs who is eating up the publicity that comes with being seen with a countess and eager for this entrée into society (he doesn't realize Edith has been cast into the societal dung heap). To Edith's consternation, the glittering world of theater turns out to be just as small-minded and dull as that of society, with the added disadvantage of it not involving much money. Gossipy and dishy, this debut by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Gosford Park is a merciless and hilarious sendup of snobbery and social jealousy, revealing the pettiness and self-absorption of both the envious and the envied. - Pulbisher's Weekly
The Dick Francis Complete Treasury of Great Racing Stories - Francis, Dick, editor
From his extensive experience as a Steeplechase rider, Francis and John Welcome—a fellow best-selling writer—have gathered 28 of the most classic horse racing stories around. The authors range from Arthur Conan Doyle and Beryl Markham to John Taintor Foote and Francis himself - from the publisher
Contents: Introduction -- The Dream / Richard Findley -- Silver Blaze / A. Conan Doyle -- A Glass of Port with the Proctor / John Welcome -- Carrot for a Chestnut / Dick Francis -- The Look of Eagles / John Taintor Foote -- Prime Rogues / Molly Keane -- The Coop / Edgar Wallace -- The Splendid Outcast / Beryl Markham -- I'm a Fool / Sherwood Anderson -- Had a Horse / John Galsworthy -- The Major / Colin Davy -- What's It Get You? / J.P. Marquand -- Harmony / William Fain -- The Bagman's Pony / E. de Somerville and Martin Ross -- Spring Fever / Dick Francis -- My First Winner / John Welcome -- The Man Who Shot The `Favourite' Edgar Wallace -- Pick The Winner / Damon Runyon -- A Night at the Old Bergen County Race-Track / Gordon Grand -- Blister / John Taintor Foote -- The Dead Cert / J.C. Squire -- The Inside View / C.C.L. Browne -- The Tale of the Gypsy Horse / Donn Byrne -- Pullinstown / Molly Keane -- Occasional Licenses / E. de Somerville and Martin Ross -- The Good Thing / Colin Davy -- The Losers / Maurice Gee -- The Oracle / A.B. (Banjo) Paterson.
Trace - Cornwell, Patricia
Against advice from her niece Lucy, Kay Scarpetta answers a request to return to the Richmond medical examiner's office, the same office from which she was fired, to help with a sensitive case of murder. When she and Pete Marino arrive, they find the new medical examiner to be a vituperative, uncooperative martinet and the office that Kay ran so efficiently in chaos. Two murders, oddly linked, demand their attention. The mystery is intriguing, there's plenty of forensic detail, and the ending, though perhaps too abrupt, opens the way for Scarpetta and her associates to proceed in any direction that calls to them. - Booklist